FOI 402-2023 / April 23 / Sexual Offences
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 402-2023
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 13th April 2023 as follows:
Q1. The number sexual offences reported in your area for the years 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023 where a taxi (black cab or hackney carriage) or private hire driver has been implicated as the offender - whether licensed or unlicensed - and where the reported offence took place in the suspect's vehicle.
Q2. The Home Office category the offence was logged under - i.e rape of a female over the age of 16.
Q3. In each case, whether the suspect was
- a) a taxi driver
- b) a private hire driver other than an Uber
- c) A private hire driver operating for Uber
Q4. The age and sex of
- a) the victim and
- b) the offender
Q5. The outcome of each investigation - including whether the suspect was charged.
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that the requested information is not centrally recorded and is therefore not held in a readily retrievable format. There are no markers or flags that can be selected when recording crimes to allow for the identification and retrieval of offences involving taxi or private hire drivers. Although there is an occupation field within the crime recording system, this is a drop-down field with limited choice, is not mandatory and is often not completed. Further, if the field has been completed it is not linked to an individual crime, but to an individual, and can be added to at any time. Previous information is kept on the record when new occupation details are added. Therefore, a search for individuals with a specific occupation type would return all records in relation to that individual, regardless of when the occupation was recorded or whether it had subsequently changed. Even if relevant occupations were returned in any given search, it would be necessary to determine, in each case, whether the occupation was relevant to the specific crime in question. For these reasons, the occupation field is not a reliable search option.
Therefore, in order to determine whether reference is made to a crime involving a taxi or private hire driver being implicated as the offender and whether the reported offence took place in the suspect's vehicle, it would be necessary to individually review the investigation for each and every sexual offence recorded in the stated period. The business area has carried out a scoping exercise and has advised that, for the years 2018, 2019 and 2022, there were 2,910 rape and sexual assault offences recorded. At a conservative estimate of 3-5 minutes per investigation to review these offences alone, this would equate to more than 145 hours of work at the lower estimate of 3 minutes. Searches would therefore exceed the amount to which we are legally required to respond, i.e., the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’, as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004. For Police forces in the UK, the "appropriate limit" is up to 18 hours of work on one request.
In accordance with section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for this part of the request.
Under Section 16 of the Act, I have a duty to provide advice and assistance; however, given the amount of work involved, I am unable to suggest a way that you could reasonably pare down your request into one which could be handled within the time allowed.
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is as accurate as possible.
Your attention is drawn to the below which details your right of complaint.
Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please write or email the Freedom of Information Unit quoting the reference number above.
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Officer
Freedom of Information Unit
Warwickshire Police
PO Box 4
Leek Wootton
Warwickshire
CV35 7QB